Angie Lu

Angie Lu's teaching skills has made her a success at University of California, San Diego.

Details

FoodPro Administrator, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA

Age: 27

Education: B.S. in management science from the University of California, San Diego

Years at organization: 4

Why Selected?

According to Anthea Klein, dining coordinator, Angie has made an impact on dining services at UCSD by:

•Teaching managers, store-keepers and chefs at all levels how to incorporate the food production, planning and control systems into their operations from the ground up

•Moving forward with ideas to improve the back-of-the-house capabilities by interacting with IT, prime food vendors and software companies

•Becoming an active member, and board member, of the department’s Toastmasters team

Get to know

Q. What has been your proudest accomplishment?

Getting our department to believe in our inventory control system again. For years our system had outdated recipes and inventory. Through hard work, training, positive attitude and persistence, we have begun to fulfill some of the system’s capabilities. Now the system is useful.

Q. What would you say you excel at over more seasoned colleagues?

My drive to inspire everyone around me to be better physically, mentally, emotionally and professionally excels me over more seasoned colleagues. I am that person who pushes myself and my teammates to go further every day.

Q. What's the best career advice you've been given?

Everyone deserves to be treated well. Treat your team and customers well and profits will follow.

Q. What's been the biggest challenge you've had to overcome?

Taking failures personally. When you try so hard and come up short, it can be hard not to blame yourself.

Q. What's been your most rewarding moment?

A colleague pulled me aside and gave me a big hug and told me what a difference I had made. She said I pushed her to be better and changed her work environment. She told me she looked forward to coming to work again.

Q. What would you like to accomplish in your career in the next two years?

I will be returning to school part time this upcoming fall to obtain my MBA. My short-term goal is to be a business manager or analyst for our program.

Q. What's been your funniest on-the-job disaster?

I was stressed out and had a meeting with my team. I was in the middle of speaking and my nose started bleeding profusely. It could have been the stress, it could have been the dry air, but it would not stop.

Q. What can you look back at now and laugh at?

I was in charge of gathering the final inventory counts for the fiscal year for all the dining units. I did not know that after I ran certain programs, I would not be able to retrieve these final counts! I was certain that I would be fired. After hours of troubleshooting, I figured out a way to retrieve the data.

City officials are weighing changes to school menus less than one year after earlier changes drew parent criticism. Officials say those menu changes were not final, and an advisory board is suggesting healthier, fresher dishes and a more expansive in-class breakfast program.